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I’m Writing Sequel to BEGUILED

The sequel,suggested by so many of my readers, in in the works. I began it on Xmas day as I was waiting for my new recipe of turkey thighs a la Spanish style to cook. A fantastic recipe, by the way.

The new story is told from a first-person narrator: Miriam in her 70s, sharing with us her in-the- moment perspective of significant time periods, beginning with the Great Depression.

A sneak preview: Miriam’s extended family was not on the bread lines. But, how they remained prosperous is something you’ll have to wait to discover. A surprising twist, one I never expected myself. But Miriam told me about it. Yep, again I’m channeling her, which is a super fun experience as a writer.

I’m discovering things about the Depression, reading Studs Terkel’s oral history.The challenge is to find oral histories of people other than the super-wealthy who made out adequately or even well during the Depression. Love to know if any reader is aware of that.

The experiences of the men who used to be called “hoboes” and vagrants back then is illuminating. Some of the same sentiments exist today – the stigma against people who don’t work, even though it’s often not their fault, but due to institutional deficits. They very much wanted to work, not to live off the dole. They went to extraordinary lengths to survive, riding and scorching themselves on top of freight trains, or freezing almost to death. And on about 50 calories a day, if that. Forced to filch food from stores and homes whenever the train stopped. Then there were the bread lines, where people, mostly a male responsibility, stood on those lines for hours jut to get a bit of gristle and bread, usually not fresh, even having mold on it that they had to tear off. And some lived in makeshift “homes,” in caves they built, abandoned pieces of machinery, anything that could provide shelter from sun and rain/ snow. More like what we imagine the “untouchables” live in around Mombai airport.

These situations sound foreign, even exotic to us. But, truly, there are people in this country (US) who don’t have enough to eat or suitable shelter.

Stay tuned for more of my historical research of the times that Miram and her family and friends lived in beginning after the crash of October 1929.